Huntsman was chosen by Obama as U.S. ambassador to China. He also passed some normalizaing liquor laws in Utah that broke up 40-year-old private club system that was said to deter tourism.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints threw its weight behind a California proposition that banned gay marriage. It caused much uproar in Utah.
Larry H. Miller died at 64.
Utah upsets Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. The Utes finished with its best record, ranking at No. 2 nationally.
Ogden policer officer and "hero" from Trolley Square shootings, Ken Hammond, spends 62 days in jail and loses his police certification after pleading no contest in a case involving a sex act with a teenage girl in 2005.
Ken Salazar reversed the Bush administration's lease of drilling parcels near some of Utah's national parks and wild redrock country.